Refreshment in Washington, D.C.

What does it take for me to be refreshed?

Several hours away from kids,
with my husband,
doing something entertaining, but cheap
and eating good food.

That sums up our lovely get-away Friday into Saturday.

Brad had a trip that left Cincinnati Friday morning, went directly to Washington, D.C. and didn't leave until the following morning. My parents graciously came from VA to stay with the girls so I could do the trip with Brad.

We arrived in D.C. around 11:00 Friday morning, grabbed some lunch and headed out for the Metro station. We felt so urban riding the Metro into "The Mall" (that's local talk for the historical sites in D.C.) to spend the day touring The Smithsonian.

Despite being rather breezy, we had great weather for walking around. We saw The American History Museum which was having a special feature on Abe Lincoln, and the Natural History Museum where you can see the Hope Diamond...which, by the way, is a blue diamond. We covered such a small portion of the museums in the 5 hours we were there. They are amazing.

We finished up our day with some delicious Thai food and propping up our weary legs while watching TV in bed.

Janelle outside one of the Smithsonian buildings

Brad and Janelle in front of the Washington Monument

Learning the Metro

Preschool ideas

Krissy Livingston asked me this morning if I had any suggestions for teaching preschooler basics at home. We didn't get to finish our discussion - as is typical at church - so I've decided to list them here in case anyone else is interested (not that I'm an expert, but it's always nice to get fresh ideas from other moms).
Some of them are my ideas, some of them I gleaned from others. Some of them are a lot better then others, but sometimes you get desperate.

• Give your child a bag (gift bag or tote bag makes this more fun for them) and tell them to find something red to put in it. For older children you can tell them to find 3 things that start with the letter 'B'. Many variations are possible. Make sure they return the item before you give them their next 'assignment'.
• Tape a red, yellow, green and blue piece of construction paper in 4 different spots in your largest room. Using Uno cards, have your child flip over the top card and run to the construction paper corresponding to the color of Uno card they turned over. If you're up to it you can 'race' them to the color and whoever gets there first gets to turn over the next card. This can also be done with more colors and CandyLand cards...or less colors if you remove any you don't want. Another 'boy' option would be to have him fly and airplane to the appropriate 'runway'/ construction paper. Or drive a truck to the right 'garage'.
  
• Opposite charades: this is one Cathryn Johansson just told me about. Have them act out "near" by standing near you and then act out "far" by standing far from you. You can do big and small by having them reach up high and squat down low. Open and close with their eyes and mouth. Loud and Quiet, Fast and Slow. If you use props you could do full and empty, up and down ect... It might work for older kids to do the opposite of what you ask them to do.
• If you have animal crackers for a snack (or something similar) you can give your child "money" (poker chips) to pay for individual crackers. You can say "this cracker will cost 4 coins." They will have to count out the right amount for each cracker. Some crackers can 'cost' more then others.
• Use a muffin tin to have your child sort out different colored beads. Each well is a different color.
• When you want to clean up all the toys, have the children play "Yes, Mommy." Noelle actually tolerates this about once a week but I don't know if that's normal. You remind them that to obey means to say "yes mommy" and then obey, right away, all the way the happy way. Then say "Noelle." To which she replies "Yes, mommy". Then you give your instruction "Take your shoes back to your room." For some reason when I say we're practicing "yes, Mommy," she wants to show me how well she can do.
• To teach your child how to accept and a appreciate a gift I take an old gift bag, put in any toy (not a new one), put tissue paper on top. Give your child the 'gift' and have them open it. Instruct them how to open the gift, look the giver in the eyes and say thank you. As Noelle's gotten older we've taught her to say something nice about the gift. "I love the color." "I've been hoping for one of these."
  
• Use "Memory Game" cards to have toddlers find matches (face up)
• Rhyming 'I Spy' - "I spy something on your feet that rhymes with fox. What is it?" "I spy something on your head that rhymes with chair."
• Use the grocery store flyers to have your child circle all the 1's. Another time have them circle the 2's. If you want to go a step further, you can cut out the numbers and help the child glue the numbers on a piece of construction paper. Hang up the pages so your child can see a page of 1's, a page of 2's etc...
• Write or print out a page of letters from the computer and have your child use a highlighter to trace them.
• Play "what doesn't belong?" by having your child look around and find something that is out of place and put it where it belongs (cleaning up in disguise). They get to mark a point for every item then find that 'doesn't belong' that they put away correctly.

If Only I Had a Box of Brownie Mix

I'm the kind of person who has extreme craving for sweets - the richer the better. So once I get an idea in my head I get a little crazy trying to figure out how I can get what I want. (yes, this could be an idol. I'll be posting about that in my next post)

The other day I wanted a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. There was a little bit of a problem. We didn't have brownies, ice cream or hot fudge.

I figured we could run out after supper to get everything but it would be too late to make the brownies and allow the girls to have some before bedtime. I was distressed and checked our pantry one last time hoping I had overlooked a box of brownies somehow. I decided Brad could go buy the ice cream and hot fudge while I baked the brownies at home and that would allow enough time to indulge before bedtime.

Then I had a revelation...It IS possible to bake brownies without a box! I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of this before (actually it's probably better that I had been limited by my oversight).

Sooo, for the first time that I can remember I made brownies from scratch. It was very easy and I may never need a box again - again this could be dentramental. I was pulling the hot brownies out of the oven when my wonderful husband returned with all the necessary toppings.

Now I'm thinking outside of the box!

"Aself"

Sadie's favorite word is currently "aself". I've defined it below:

Aself: a pronoun meaning 'all by myself.' Frequently used in sentences such as "do it aself," "get it aself" or simply "aself, Aself, ASELF!"

Yep, she's 2.

No More Addy

Over the past several months I've read Noelle several of the American Girl books. We've experienced the Depression with Kit, WWII with Molly and the Victorian era with Samantha. I was warned to watch out for the Kirsten series because Kirsten's best friend dies in the first book. (wow, that could be a downer.) Therefore Noelle and I plunged into the Addy series.
I guess I should be astute enough to know a book based on a slave during the civil war would not be all sunshine and roses. Be warned, Addy is not light reading.

In the first chapter Addy recollects her older brother's attempt to run away the previous year only to be hunted down by the master's dogs and given a sever beating to 'teach him a lesson'. (okay, that's not exactly fun reading)

The second chapter involves Addy finding her brother gagged and shackled in the back of a wagon while her dad is laying face down in the dirt, being shackled so that he may join his son in the wagon. They were being sold and Addy would probably never see them again. Addy gets a lash of the whip for clinging to her father when the master tells her to stay away. (Okay, now it's getting gut wrenching)

Several times throughout the story I've asked Noelle if I should continue. It was emotional for me to read all this and I assumed it would be upsetting to her as well. She was enthralled (and probably not fully grasping all that was going on) so she urged me to keep reading.

The third chapter was the point when Addy's mom informed her they would be running away. When Addy questioned how this would work with her 1-year old sister Addy's mom revealed that the younger sister would be left behind to be cared for by the other slaves - again probably never to be seen again. At this point I couldn't handle any more sorrow and I burst into tears - not just little tears but the kind that don't stop for a while.

I told Noelle I couldn't read the book to her anymore and if she wanted the chapter finished she would have to get Brad to finish it.

The next day Noelle asked if I could please read more the of the Addy book. I decided I had given myself a little time and really, could the book get any sadder? I agreed to read another chapter. Two pages into it I was in tears again and told Noelle she will not be hearing the rest of the Addy series - at least not from me.
No More Addy.
Please pass me the Kirsten series. A dead best friend can't be this bad!